Dragon Blood
by Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh
Summary: In the fantasy kingdom of Atlas lives Pyrrha Nikos, a hidden Dragonblood whose combat skills are extraordinaire. After the arrival of a new kid, called Jaune Arc, and his family, however, things escalated to a point of no return. The two kids will have to face reality, and it's a reality that wants to kill them both. Arkos. Renora. Rated M for violence.
1. Chapter 1

Hey everyone, here's the author, as you can easily guess.

I've decided to rewrite the fic now called "Dragons and Knights", but since I hate to erase work, I'm gonna write a different fic and I named it "Dragon Blood", the former title of said fic.

Now, there are a few things that have to be considered in this fic. Namely, the world.

Although I did keep some names and so from RWBY, the world is essentially a new one. I designed it almost a year ago, when I first began writing my story. I will use the names of the Four Kingdoms of Remnant instead of the kingdoms of my book, but the geography is completely different. The Kingdom of Syeh (Atlas) is the a coastal kingdom, and it's where the story begins. The Kingdom of Amyes and the Independent City of Jasvamyyz (Vale) is a mountainous kingdom just above Atlas. The Empire of the West (Mistral) is separated from Atlas by the ocean, and it's an Empire instead of a kingdom. The Northern Wastelands (Vacuo) are above Vale, and they're filled with dangerous monsters and bandit tribes (included Raven Branwen's). And this is the basic geography.

As for Dragons and Dragonbloods, Dragons' extinction is dated back to the Great War, a twelve-years-long war between humans and Dragons. The Dragons somehow managed to pass their blood to some humans, said Dragonbloods. Nine years after the War, Atlas formed a guard force called Dragonblood Security Guards (later renamed "The Hunters". In this fic, Huntsmen), that searched and listed all the Dragonbloods in the kingdom. Then the King ordered to execute all those Dragonbloods and so was done, leaving the survivors to flee North, to Vale, where they funded the city of Vale (in the book, Jasvamyyz), a city known to accept the exiles from Atlas.

Dragonbloods are a bit different than how I described them in Dragons and Knights. Each Dragonblood has two minerals, yes, but one of them must be a non-metal and the other a metal. A Dragonblood grows wings in the span of two years (age 15 to 17), and before that there is only one way to tell a draconic descendant to a human: the eyes. A Dragonblood's eyes are bi-chromatic, continually shifting from a colour to the other. Those colours are the colours of the Dragonblood's minerals. When a Dragonblood is angry, his eyes stop shifting, no matter what colour they are. A Dragonblood wing's span is about 3 yards for an adult (about 2 yards tall, give or take 3 inches) and -folded- they are almost as tall as the Dragonblood himself. To mask them, they usually fold their wings under their shirt -it's painful- and then wear a cape or a cloak to cover the budge in the shirt.

In this world, there is magic. Everyone can use it, but training is needed. A untrained mage is called "Wild" because his magic is wild. All magic is commanded through Dragontongue (since Dragons were the most magical creatures known to men), but basic magic can also be performed with just willpower.

And now let's speak about Dragontongue. I can already tell you: I _will_ show off. I invented a language and its writings and grammar rules, and I will show it off to the whole damn world. Do not try to read Dragontongue: ask me. Its grammar rules are different from English, and its pronounce it's a mix of English and Italian, plus a few exceptions. And it's written from right to left. Just one thing you should know: "k" is pronounced "s". "Kh" is pronounced "k". Thanks for the attention. My username is the bastardization of the words " _Khor Evik_ ", and it means Amethyst Silver.

Okay, if you have questions (not asking spoilers), just ask me and I'll be more than happy to reply. I once talked for three hours about it with my best friend. She almost fell asleep... ;)

So, first informative chapter done, let's see how the fic will work out!

Bye-bye,

the Author.


	2. A New Kid

Pyrrha Nikos was extraordinaire. There was no doubt about it.

She was more skilled than the other kids in many things, included combat. Until the age of twelve, she had been strictly forbidden to take part to the brawls among kids that often happened in the town because of the potential damage she could cause. At the age of ten, she could wrestle a fourteen years old to the ground. At the age of fourteen, she already helped the adults in during hunts. At seventeen years old, she was the strongest person in town, outmatched only by seasoned hunters or woodcutters. She could throw a javelin ninety feet away, and her skill with sword and shield was incredible.

Of course, there was also the small detail she had bat-like, or rather dragon-like, wings.

She lived with her father in a small town in Atlas called Eveshi, on horse just a week away from the capital. Her father had grown her on his own after her mother died when she was three. She didn't even remember her mother, but since she was nothing like her father, she assumed she had taken after her mother. The Nikos family lived in a relatively large house, in the periphery of Eveshi. Pyrrha's father had often talked about buying a new house in the countryside, now that his duty as Guard Captain was over, but the idea had never been realized and the two remained in their house.

Pyrrha had never had many friends. She liked to hang out with the town's group of her age, but she often had to help the adults with their works because of her strength and skill. Also, the same strength she used to help the adults was source of envy from the other seventeens, especially the males, whose young ego was seriously hurt by the fact that a girl so lithe could wrestle a guy twice her weight to the ground. Without intending to, Pyrrha slowly distanced herself from the others, only occasionally taking part to a staff fight or to walks in the woods, that were filled with poisonous plants and dangerous animals like snakes and, in the inner zone, wolves.

Often, she would wander in the woods alone, and so she learned all the paths and the name of the plants in the forest. Curiously, the woods near Eveshi were home of many types of lethal plants she was almost sure weren't native of that climate, but when she asked her father, he said he didn't know enough about them to tell for sure. Pyrrha had made it a habit to have a walk in the forest everyday, and she had learned many things from her idle wandering. For example she had learned why the aconite was called wolfsbane: the unfortunate wolves that ate the plant were almost surely going to die in pain. Instead the deadly nightshade, also called wolfsbane or belladonna, was believed to be able to cure lycanthropy if a fresh twig was ingested within a week from contagion. Of course, werewolves didn't live in Atlas. The legends said they were hunted and pushed out of the kingdom, but many doubted they had ever existed in the first place.

Ironically, like she was a beautiful and skilled warrior, her favourite flower became the fire lily, a plant with beautiful flame-like flowers that was poisonous, especially its roots. She treasured the only fire lily of the forest with incredible care, as she knew it would be difficult to replace once dead.

And it was in the forest that she met him for the first time.

Pyrrha had had a bad day. Not that she wasn't used to bad days, but today she was feeling even more down than usual. She had helped the adults, like usual, but when she had asked the other kids in town if they wanted to hang out, they had coldly refused. It wasn't the first time she was rejected because of her differences, but then again it wasn't the first time she had a walk in the forest to lessen the bitter taste that refusal left in her mouth.

Why did she have to put up with all that spite? Because that was it. The others despised her because she was better than they were at many things. Especially, they despised her because she was much better than they were at fighting. She didn't lose staff fights any more, and the numbers of the ones still willing to fight her had decreased immensely. Now only two of all the other teens still sparred with her. One of them was a nineteen years old boy, the other an eighteen years old girl.

Pyrrha wandered in the forest for a good while, cursing all her skill for the umpteenth time, heading to the small clearing in which there was her fire lily. The undergrowth was thick in that part of the forest, because no one hunted there, as it was a zone of the forest notoriously lacking of preys. That was because of the many poisonous plants that grew there, and regularly poisoned the unfortunate animals that tried to eat them.

With her she had her weapons, a sword she named Miló and a round shield called Akoúo, just in case she had to defend herself from a lone wolf or something like that. The pack that lived in the forest wouldn't hunt in that terrain, so she was relatively safe, although the undergrowth was thick with thorny bushes, and even after years of practice, she wasn't able to avoid every one of them. Finally, she reached the small clearing that was home of so many different types of poisonous plants.

There, a surprise was waiting for her. A lone figure was crouching over the aconite, inspecting it with great care and interest. He was wearing a long cape similar to the one she wore herself, and his hands were protected by leather gloves. As she walked in the clearing, he raised his eyes to look at her. His mouth and nose were covered by cloth, probably to avoid contact with the lethal plants. His eyes, however, were completely free, two luminous sapphires that looked at her for a second before widening in fear.

Before she could say a word, he bolted on his feet, revealing to be wearing all leather clothes, from the jacket to the pants to the boots. A sword hung from his side, and a small leather bag was hanging from the other side, containing what Pyrrha deduced to be leaves, flowers and roots of plants. He didn't say a word as he turned and ran headlong into the woods, carefully avoiding the various plants that lived in the clearing. Pyrrha took a couple of steps after him, but then she decided against it. After all, he had a sword, and even if she was skilled at combat, there was no telling how good he could be, or if he would attack her. It was better for her to just let it pass and continue her walk.

It was better for her to go back soon. Meeting a lone man in the woods, while he was examining lethally poisonous plants nonetheless, wasn't a good sign. Especially because she was just a girl. Strong, skilled and all, sure, but she was still a seventeen-year-old girl who was wandering in a forest alone. Eventually, her common sense bested her curiosity, and she resumed her walk in the opposite direction to the one the man had escaped. The thorns were merciful on her way back, and she arrived to her home for once not covered in small scratches and cuts, but just _partially_ covered in small scratches and cuts.

She ran home as fast as she could, wanting to tell everything to her father, but she remembered proper etiquette before she could burst the door open. Instead, she halted just before her home's entrance, taking a few deep breaths before knocking twice and then twisting the doorknob. As she stepped inside and closed the door behind her, she noticed with a sigh of relief that her father was home, and it didn't seem like he was going to be leaving anytime soon.

"Hello, darling", he greeted her with a smile. "How did your walk go?".

"It was... interesting", she replied, carefully. The blunt truth wasn't useful in those cases. "Are there any news?".

"Oh yes, a couple. Two of Edwin's sheep have been stolen", he nodded, frowning slightly. And then he smiled. "And it seems there's a new family in town... well, actually out of town, but they will be citizens of Eveshi, even though they live in the countryside".

"Really?", asked Pyrrha, the encounter in the woods immediately forgotten. "Where do they live?".

"Slightly more than a mile North of town", he replied, happy for her interest. "They got a large house with a walled garden. And they bought some land, too. I guess they want to settle down quite steadily".

"Is the house on the road?", asked Pyrrha, smiling back at her father. "May I go welcome them in Eveshi?".

"That's my daughter!", laughed the man. "Of course you can. It's not exactly on the road, but it's visible if you keep an eye on your surroundings. There should be a path leading up to the house, if I'm not wrong".

"Should I bring them something?", she wondered aloud, pensive. "Like... a welcome gift?".

"You're so kind, darling", her father laughed again. "Unfortunately, I don't have anything to give you. Just go welcome that family tomorrow. It's not important if you don't have a present. Besides, what they don't know can't hurt them".

She frowned a little at the thought of going without a gift for the new family, but then brightened and smiled. "Don't worry, Dad, I've got a gift for them!".

#####

"I guess this is it", she said to no one in particular. The fresh morning air grazed her hair as she looked at the building.

In front of her there was a large iron gate, and on both sides of the gate there were high walls of stone. Behind those walls there was a large garden, with a main path and several secondary, smaller paths. Almost everywhere but on the paths, the garden was filled with trees. It was like looking to a forest. Not just the trees some of the most obnoxious nobles planted for their beauty in their gardens, but many kinds of trees. Right ahead of her, she could see the path running around a large oak that towered over the other trees.

Unsure of what to do, she decided to try and enter the garden. After all, the gate was unlocked, and there was no way for a possible visitor to reach the house's door without entering the garden. Also, no one was there for her to ask permission to, so she guessed the new family just let the visitor enter the garden without much problems. As silently as she could, she closed the gate behind her, and began nervously walking toward the house, painfully aware of the sound of her footsteps in the otherwise perfectly silent courtyard.

However, as she reached the large oak, all her self consciousness vanished, pushed away by the mere sight of the ancient tree. It was at least twelve feet in diameter and no less than twenty-five yards in height, with an impressive foliage crowning its upper half and enormous roots protruding from the ground under it. She had seen many bigger and older trees, but this one's magnificence was emphasised by the lack of other trees around it. The gravel road cut a clean path through the otherwise wild courtyard, and the oak was standing right in a small square of the path. Idly, she realized that all the trees made the garden look much larger than it really was. Now that she could see the house, she could also tell that the entire length of the path between the door and the gate wasn't more than hundred fifty yards. Still impressive, but surely far less than she had initially thought upon seeing the beautiful gardens.

The house itself was very well built. As she circled it entirely to have a better look at it, she saw that the entire perimeter of the house was decorated with beautiful colonnades, whose slender pillars were of simple yet splendid white stone. Not marble, she noticed with a tiny bit of disappointment. The house had two floors, as it was normal for estates of that size. Just like there were colonnades all around the perimeter of the ground floor, the second floor was furnished with several beautiful balconies, and as she finally finished her perimeter patrol, she saw that the largest one was exactly above the door.

The door itself wasn't a huge doorway, but instead an elegant dark oak door, with two crescents carved on it. She shifted her weight from a foot to the other several times before finally taking a deep breath and steeling herself. As good as she was at combat, her social skills were painfully low, and her loneliness was a clear proof of that. She raised a hand and knocked three times, firmly and with determination.

"Coming!", a voice came from the other side of the door, together with the sounds of footsteps. The door flew open and a tall blonde girl stood on the threshold, smiling at her. "Hey there. I'm Jane Arc. My family and I just moved in. Who are you?".

"My name's Pyrrha Nikos. I came from the town to welcome you in Eveshi", she said, politely bowing her head just slightly, as her father taught her. Being the daughter of the former Guard Captain came with advantages about etiquette. "I've heard you just moved in, and I decided to greet you appropriately".

The girl frowned for something like a second, and then her smile returned twofold. "Well, thanks a lot. Come in", she replied, stepping aside to let her in. "Dad! Mum! Brats! Everyone down! We have a guest!".

Pyrrha's resolve began to stagger when she realized she was going to have to handle the whole family in a social encounter. And that, for her, was more difficult than any fight. Especially because the girl had said "brats", probably referring to her siblings, and so there had to be at least two of them. Together with the one who opened the door, and their parents, it meant she would have to face at least five people. If she was lucky, the two other siblings would be children, but if she wasn't...

She slowly walked inside the house. The atrium was small but cosy, modestly adorned with a couple of bookshelves and some other furnitures, plus a small painting on the opposite wall. With a smile, Jane Arc led her in an adjacent room, where there was a long table of pine wood and several chairs all around it. Many drawers and shelves were disseminated around the room's walls, but one detail in particular caught her attention. It was a blazon, _the_ blazon of the Arc family, evidently. It represented a shield decorated with the same double crescent she'd seen on the door, and behind it a sword. It was a very simple coat of arms, but Pyrrha liked it. After all, her family's was a round shield crossed by a spear.

"The blazon represents Crocea Mors, the Arc family heirloom", said Jane, noticing her gaze lingering on the blazon. "The double crescent is the Arc insignia. It represents the Sun and its light".

"Now, who's this lovely girl?", said an unknown -to Pyrrha- voice from behind them. Pyrrha whipped around, tensing up, but she was shocked to see that behind her there wasn't just a woman like she had thought. There was the entire Arc family, or so she hoped. It was huge.

Tall and proud stood the woman who had talked, her green eyes sparkling with kindness, her mane of blonde hair freely falling on her shoulders. Beside her stood a shorter man, with messy black hair and lively brown eyes, who was smiling at Pyrrha. Semi-hiding behind them there were three young girls, all three of various shades of blond hair and brown eyes. On the woman's left side stood a girl who seemed to be slightly younger than Pyrrha herself, with ink black hair and lively green eyes. On the other side of the Arc parents there were two girls and a boy. The two older girls seemed to be twins, with identical facial features and raven hair, but one of them had brown eyes while the other had green eyes. Beside them there was a tall boy with messy blond hair and, differently from any other member of the family, sapphire-blue eyes.

She was simply overwhelmed. She couldn't take them all on on a social conversation. She had to flee. And fast, if we wanted to avoid the seemingly unavoidable conversation. She knew how politeness ruined discussions, and she wasn't going to have a discussion with that family. They were too much. Just like a soldier knew when he was outmatched in battle, Pyrrha Nikos knew when she was outmatched in social interaction. Idly, in the back of her head, she asked herself how in the world it had happened right _to her_ to welcome a family with a monstrous number of members. Just as idly, she reminded herself that she had been the one to want to go. And she regretted it, now.

"Oh! Okay, guys: this is Pyrrha Nikos, from the town. She came to welcome us in... I think it's called Eveshi", said Jane. Pyrrha felt a tiny part of her uneasiness slip away as the family gave her beaming smiles. "Pyrrha, this is my family, the Arcs: Mum Jade, Dad John, the twins Joan and Johann, the only boy is Jaune, the one on Mum's other side is Jean, and the three currently hiding behind Mum and Dad are, respectively, Jude, Jay and Jinn".

Pyrrha nodded at each name, her head feeling increasingly spinning. When she noticed that, Mrs Arc laughed and gestured her to sit. "Please, don't stay there. Take a seat. Meeting the whole family all together can be quite traumatic", she said with a bright smile. "Would you like to eat something? The journey from the town to our home must've been long on foot. Joan, Jaune? Could you please prepare breakfast for everyone?".

The two nodded and disappeared in an adjacent room, beginning to noisily prepare whatever breakfast they had in mind. Pyrrha, polite as ever, tried to decline the offer without offending Mrs Arc. "No, thanks, I'm fine", she said with a small smile and a little bow of the head. "Thank you for your kind offer, madam".

A doubtful hum came from her right and, turning, she noticed that Mr Arc had just sat beside her. "This sounds pure politeness and no real refusal", he said, smirking at her. "Joan, Jaune, prepare for Pyrrha here, too, please".

"On it!", came Joan's voice, as the noise in the kitchen increased. "...soon!", she corrected herself.

John chuckled in his fist. "So, Pyrrha, you said you come from the town", he said before she could try and decline again. "How's there?".

She was slightly taken aback from the directness, but she appreciated it. "It is very nice, sir. Although Eveshi isn't a very large town like Vanquire or Atlas", she said, her smile cringing a tiny bit when a loud crash was heard from the kitchen. Then Joan's voice came with an ashamed "I'm fine!" and she continued. "But it surely is a pleasant town to live in. I'm sure you will like it".

Mr Arc smiled and nodded before continuing with another question, merciless.

#####

As she walked out of the door and closed it behind her, she couldn't restrain a deep sigh of relief. _'It's finally over'_ , she thought happily as she walked toward the gates. That had been one of the worst days of her life. The Arcs had kept her talking until breakfast was served. Although she had to admit it was delicious, she also couldn't really enjoy it due to the tension in her body. They had then talked some more before the parents had gone out to work in their fields with Jane, Joan and Johann, the three eldest sisters. The rest of the Arc children, left without adult backup, had to let her go and freed her from her misery.

"Yeah, my family is kinda hard to endure all at a time", said a voice behind her. Whipping around, she saw the only male Arc kid, Jaune if her memory wasn't tricking her. "You'll get used to it... eventually".

She frowned ever so slightly and bit her lip, trying to come up with something polite that would've let her flee from the overcrowded Arc estate, but the boy preceded her. "Don't worry, you don't have to say anything if you don't want to. That's what my parents do. I just wanted to say that I really like your knife", he said, taking the long knife from his belt. "It's really well built. And the symbol on the hilt is unknown to me, but I like it too. Where did you get it from?".

Pyrrha swallowed dryly. "I bought it from a blacksmith in town", she replied, automatically. "The symbol's my family insignia, the Spear and the Shield".

"It's very similar to my family's one. What a coincidence, don't you think?", he smiled. Now that she could get a better look at him, she noticed he was wearing all resistant clothes. His boots and pants were made of leather, while the shirt was fine wool. He wore leather gloves too, and to complete his frame there was a cape hanging from his shoulders. He looked familiar...

"Mr Arc... may I ask you if you were in the woods, yesterday?", she asked before thinking, and immediately afterwards she wanted to slap herself for the slip-up.

Jaune got an embarrassed expression. "Yeah... sorry about that. I didn't want to scare you or something...", he meekly apologized. "I just noticed the plants that grow in that forest and I wanted to take a closer look. Are those plants yours?".

Pyrrha snapped out of her self-berating trance at the question. "What? Oh no, they aren't", she quickly replied, almost grimacing at how informal it came out. "Excuse me, but I have to go".

He laughed at that. "Don't worry, you can go. You're welcome whenever you wish to visit again", he said, smiling. "If you don't come too early or too late, my parents and older sisters shouldn't be home, if you wish to return".

Pyrrha nodded before turning and beginning to walk away. She stole one last glance at the boy from over her shoulder, frowning a little and stopping. There was something off. He was still wearing the clothes he had been wearing three seconds before, his messy blond hair fell in locks over his golden eyes and he was regarding her with a light smile.

Wait... _golden_ eyes?

She stared, her frown deepening, and was utterly shocked when his eyes began to change. From the molten gold they were, they began to fade into azure, and when the gold had finally faded off completely, she found herself looking straight into his sapphire eyes. Her widened in shock when he seemed to be completely unfazed by the change. His smile turned into a smirk as he caught her gaze and held it for two long seconds. Then his smirk disappeared and his smile returned. "Didn't you have to go?", he said. "You're welcome to stay, but I recall you saying you should be going".

Pyrrha nodded again in reply and farewell before turning and heading to the gates. She could almost feel the boy's gaze on her, probably regarding her with amusement at her hasty retreat. Because she knew she hadn't fooled anyone: she was hastily retreating. Shamelessly retreating before a stronger enemy. One against ten wasn't a fair battle, be in with swords or with words. Didn't someone say that the word is mightier than the sword, after all?

And bi-chromatic eyes different from hers were something she wasn't ready for.


End file.
